My gospel

In a green meadow

I first found You.

Through a sheet of white Light

I beheld Your beauty.

With no reservations I drew closer,

knowing this to be all that my soul has ever longed for.

Perfectly timed and intentionally placed,

an encounter You authored before I was born.

But there is a tower in my heart

where I think You wait for me.

So up I climb,

gripping bricks of striving and self-sufficiency.

At each window I pull myself up to

I am met with thorns, fire, crumbling rock.

My hopes of climbing closer to You are deferred

with every entry blocked.

I was so sure this was the way

to the Life in Full for which I yearned.

Surely like everything else in this world,

the Father’s goodness and kindness must be earned?

Heart and hands weak and worn,

I come to see this tower is manmade on pride.

But You loved me first and Your pursuit never stopped,

for “Go back to the beginning,”

You graciously guide.

The beginning—

Where Your Spirit

over the waters rested,

and by the sound of Your voice

the heavens and earth in vast array were created.

You pulled back the draping of darkness

with a blue sky of light,

and a new day You deemed

by morning and night.

Along gathered ground,

seeds from plants were borne.

Across the vault of the sky

winged birds soared.

In seas

creatures teemed.

At night

stars beamed.

And a Garden

nestled in the nucleus of all this wonder,

homed the crown of Your Creation:

humankind, that You called Son and Daughter.

This is the portrait

of humanity fully alive.

Your Original Design—

absent of any need to strive.

Abundant life

You provided.

Intimate communion with us

You simply desired.

Now I see—

In place of a tower,

this Garden in my heart You now tend.

And with Your all-sufficient grace,

my striving spirit You tenderly mend.

For it is only by grace through faith

that I have been saved.

It is only through rest and surrender,

that I find the Freedom I have for so long craved.

So, in the restored Garden in my heart

I now find You.

And through Your Son, Jesus Christ,

I hold onto an eternal Love that is undeserved, unearned, and true.